Baylor Trip Update

Hello from the Jungle,

 

Yesterday was another blessed day. The whole team spent all day in Bahaia loving on the people and finishing up dental care. We had a fun VBS time in the morning where we told the kids the story of Daniel in the lions den and Lexi made an excellent lion, the kids loved it!

 

For the rest of the day most of the team split up into small groups and went from house to house ministering to people. Because it was a weekday many people were working so we had some neat opportunities to serve them and help with household chores like sweeping and cleaning. Being willing to work alongside the people opened many doors and we were able to have many conversations about Christ with the people there. Many of them are hungry for the Gospel and are anxiously awaiting the church's arrival.

 

Please keep these people in your prayers. They deeply desire community and knowledge about God's Word. We need to also pray for the future leadership of this church because this community has been scared by hypocrisy in the former church leadership. We were invited into the school for their afternoon session and it was amazing to see the Holy Spirit begin to work there. At first, the teachers were somewhat closed off to having us there interrupting the flow of the day but as time progressed they were asking us to please come back that evening. A few people on our team stepped up and gave their testimonies which was great for the students to hear.

 

We stayed out and watched the sunset with a group of the village children and marveled at God's remarkable artistic ability. It never ceases to amaze me how creative our God is and the beautiful things he has created.

 

Today we are in the village Castanhal. It is a much smaller village that neighbors Bahaia. The people here are mainly Catholic so many of them understand who Christ is but have unfortunately been strongly influenced by the corruption of the local church. Our work today has not been easy but we are trusting that God is sovereign and His name will be glorified.

 

Most of the team is hitting the mid-trip wall and many are exhausted but in our weakness He is made strong. Pray for rest, renewal and continued health for our team. Pray that God would break down walls here in this village and that people would continue to pursue getting to know the Lord even after we leave.

 

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So that blog was suppose to go out yesterday but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to send it because we took off to go back into the village and last night we were moving and could not get a signal.

 

Today... God absolutely rocked our world.

 

There are so many stories I don't even know where to begin. We showed up this morning at a village we had not originally planned on going too but of course as we all know if you want to make God laugh, make your own plans. He has been getting a pretty good laugh watching me all week long.

 

We pulled up to the village Sao Sebastiao do Jurua in a lagoon here in the Amazon, there are about three communities here in this area and no Americans have been here before (which was obvious by the way we frightened a few of the children with our super pale skin). Pastor Sasa told us that they had a problem with pediphilia which was somewhat unsettling at first because... lets be real we didn't exactly have any training for that. But we had an incredible prayer time and hit the shore ready to roll.

 

It was a surreal experience for me because this was the first village I have been to where during VBS I had to explain to the kids what the Bible was and who Jesus is. We have so many amazing stories to tell.

 

This morning, we met the president of the village who happened to be a woman. She spent a long time talking to some of our team members and around lunch time she went back to her home to eat with her husband. While she was talking with members of our team her husband, the village preist, was sitting and listening during the men's ministry. Taylor and Troy both shared their testimonies and the Lord used them in a powerful way. Her husband went home for lunch and they both talked about what they had experienced that morning. Both were overcome by the love and joy they saw from our team that they had never seen before. Long story short, they both ended up receiving Jesus as their Savior and no longer want anything to do with the corruption of the Catholic church that they lead because they want to pursue a true relationship with Christ.

 

There are a ton of great stories and we begin our boat ride back to Manaus tomorrow. Please pray for safe travels and rest as we all work to digest what the Lord has done this week. It has been such an incredible blessing to serve alongside these college students who are so passionate about God's word. Their lives have been changed forever and it has meant so much to me to get to watch my peers serve the Brazilian people so selflessly. The next generation is definitely a force to be reckoned with folks. Keep us in your prayers and keep investing in us the way you have been it truly does make a difference. See you soon! Deus Abencoe :)

 

Go Mavs
Sic Em Bears
In Christ,
Landen, Harrison & the Baylor Team